Overlay tracking options

The Overlay bookmarklet has two configuration options: slot tracking or post tracking.

Slot tracking monitors the performance of a specific area, or slot, on a webpage. As content moves in and out of a slot, Parse.ly maintains consistent tracking of that slot. This provides insights on which areas of a page get the most attention from visitors and allows more effective content promotion strategies.

Post tracking monitors individual pieces of content — posts. As a post moves around a site, Parse.ly continues to evaluate it on its own merits.

Slot tracking

Slot tracking designates areas on a website that Overlay tracks. This configuration is the default. The most common type of page to see slot tracking on is a homepage or index page.

Slot tracking allows you to see which spots on your site receives the most clicks. You can prioritize site real estate, ensuring that the most successful slots display the most important posts.

Post tracking

Post tracking with Overlay allows you to view click-through rates for specific posts using Overlay, providing insights into how posts are performing.

Which Overlay tracking configuration is best?

Which Overlay tracking configuration works best for your team depends on how you’re using Overlay and how your site is configured.

Track a post’s success at a glance.

Use post tracking. Parse.ly provides this information with Overlay in its simplest form.

Analyze the performance of static slots on a webpage.

Use slot tracking. It can be implemented easily on a site with static slots, because the structure of the homepage remains the same.

Compare slots between different versions of a page.

In this case, using slot tracking may be difficult, as Overlay struggles to compare slots across webpages with different structures. However, technical teams can solve this by defining slots with the data-parsely-slot attribute.